It's looking increasingly likely that we'll franchise Hardy and then go from there. We'll need Gettleman to continue his cap magic to keep him long term, however, and even that's a stretch, with Newton's extension and some of Hurney's mega-contracts reaching their peaks in the next few years.

I say the team with the worst veteran starting QB signs him...do the Giants have cap room?

Hey now watch yourself! Eli will probably be getting an extension soon anyway. As of right now we have the least amount of cap room in the NFL but we have 25 impending FA's and some cuts that will free up a lot of room.

At this point, I think you could say that, listed alphabetically, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Cam Newton, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, and Russell Wilson are all better quarterbacks than Cutler, while I think there are a fair amount of people who would rather have some guys like Joe Flacco, Nick Foles, Robert Griffin, Colin Kaepernick, Eli Manning, Alex Smith, or Ryan Tannehill moving forward.

I just don't understand the logic of committing a substantial portion of your salary cap to someone who's basically established himself as a talented but a middling quarterback and who's made only one playoff appearance over an eight-year career, especially when a thirty-four-year-old career backup who has spent time in the UFL was able to step in and perform better than him.

Quarterback contracts are crazy, and letting Cutler leave would hurt in the short-term, but this signing seems to lock in the Bears as, at best, a pseudo-contender for the foreseeable future, indicating that they're comfortable with eight or nine wins a season and a chance at ending up as one of the NFC's wild-card teams. This is an unfortunate situation for Chicago because he's just good enough to prevent them from looking for an improvement, while not the type of franchise quarterback who makes their team an annual contender.

Chris Kluwe with some not so good stuff to say about Frazier, Spielman...and especially his ST coach, Priefer. Priefer comes out looking really bad in this story

Based Zygi Wilf. Also, I will always love Chris Kluwe and Mike Priefer is a douchenozzle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giantsfan1080

Hey now watch yourself! Eli will probably be getting an extension soon anyway. As of right now we have the least amount of cap room in the NFL but we have 25 impending FA's and some cuts that will free up a lot of room.

Sorry, meant to post a picture soon mocking the extension talk, but work is failing me.

but this signing seems to lock in the Bears as, at best, a pseudo-contender for the foreseeable future, indicating that they're comfortable with eight or nine wins a season and a chance at ending up as one of the NFC's wild-card teams. This is an unfortunate situation for Chicago because he's just good enough to prevent them from looking for an improvement, while not the type of franchise quarterback who makes their team an annual contender.

Cutler doesn't make the Bears an annual contender by himself, but it's ludicrous to suggest they'll never be anything more than a wildcard team with him at the helm. Particularly because they've already won the division with Cutler, and they made a Superbowl with Rex Grossman.

So where does Michael Vick end up? He's the only one even remotely in the starting QB conversation assuming McCown either returns to the Bears or retires.

Edit: I guess you could consider Matt Schaub a redemption project too.

If he's ok competing, which he said he's ok returning to Philly as a backup, so I'm guessing he is. I could see him going several places where the right coach goes.

Vick needs a very very good O-Line, or else you risk losing him for 2+ games a season. Even the O-Line isn't a guarantee he will make it a whole season though.

IMO Vick really needs to be on a run first offense. I like him in the west coast offense and maybe a coach like Kyle Shanahan, Mike Shanahan, Darrell Bevell, Gary Kubiak could interest him if they need a stop-gap QB to compete with a young gun.

meh. the bears won't win a super bowl with cutler. nor will anyone else. no idea why everyone suddenly thinks it's a good plan to piss away that much guaranteed money and cap space on a guy who won't take you anywhere.

I'm going to also disagree with the idea that Cutler is only good for eight or nine wins a season. I think Cutler can certainly lead them to a better record than that, and that he can definitely get them into the playoffs. My complaint with Cutler is that I don't think he is a quarterback who can realistically win the Super Bowl. The playoffs require smart, clutch play, and I don't think Cutler can deliver three or four straight games of that.

That being said, I don't necessarily dislike the deal. That team is far from a Super Bowl contender regardless of how Cutler plays. The defense needs a lot of work done to it to reach that level. Signing Cutler gives them a quarterback who can keep them relevant while allowing them to build a team around them. Should Cutler prove unable to win consistently in the playoffs as I suspect will be the case, you can then draft a quarterback and won't be forced to throw him into the fire. I don't agree with a seven year deal, but if I were a Bears fan, I wouldn't have any problems with keeping Cutler for a few more years.

No of course not, impossible not to agree with him/his actions, but it is all entirely from his POV and perspective, which is not the best way to guarantee accuracy. Punters are shockingly replaceable in the NFL after all, it was a miracle he lasted 8 years up there.